Martin World News

 

So today, our objective is to rant abou-er, post the FIRST non-news item on a site's front page.  Let's get right to it!

1. Fox News:Earth-shaking?, well, something's shaking...

Headline: SEE IT:Chris Pratt's ex-wife strips down for the Super Bowl

The fifth-ranked (by placement) story on FN is about Anna Faris and her two avocados, apparently trying to be the fruit Eve sampled in the Garden of Eden.  And, as for seeing it...

...well, it will be network TV.

BBC World News: Debate needed over this pressing world problem

Headline: Hollywood debate over Riseborough Oscar nomination

Apparently, the problem with Andrea Riseborough's nomination was that instead of having her support being raised the normal way- whatever that is- her performance in a movie called To Leslie was nominated because of a "celeb-backed campaign" to get her nominated.  Let's let the Hollywood Reporter explain...

One such film is To Leslie, an indie film starring Andrea Riseborough that did almost no business last October when released in 28 or so theaters. But after a celebrity-fueled grassroots campaign led to Riseborough earning a surprise Oscar nomination for best actress, the movie is going back into six cinemas this weekend. According to unofficial estimates, few are going to see To Leslie. Those with access to numbers say the film earned $250,000 or less from six theaters.

 

Seems to me the celeb-backed campaign would have been better spent informing the viewing public that the movie even exists- with the reviews it got, you'd think it would be a hit if anyone knew about it.

Japan Times: Not your normal cross-cultural experience

Headline: Over 500 women in Japan used overseas sperm bank in 3½ years through October

So we have a Danish company, with donors from Europe and the USA, serving the infertile and the reproductively challenged (read: gay couples) in Japan.  Why Denmark?  Because it seems that the law doesn't allow, shall we say, home-grown businesses in this area in Japan.  It seems this is a many-cornered battle with sides including both those who want to plan for a future without restrictions, those who want such services limited to infertile married couples (which would prevent 65% of current customers from getting the process), and those who are concerned " … about whether we should live in a society where people’s genetic information is evaluated and traded for money.”

 

Xinhua (China): Because Western Union is so impersonal

Headline:  Chinese, Dutch FMs talk over phone

"We tried walkie-talkies, but the reception was a bit sketchy..." 

Deutsche Welle (Germany): Should have thought about this a bit earlier...

Headline: Could Adolf Hitler's seizure of power have been prevented?

After 90 years, they're STILL trying to figure this one out?

"You know, one day they might yet surprise us... nahhh."

France24: This is just too cute....

Headline: Is there life on Mars? Maybe, and it could have dropped its teddy

The Mars reconnaissance Orbiter took a picture of a 1.25 mile-wide "bear's face" on Mars.  On the more serious (cough, cough) side of the story, they do note...

"One thing they have not found, however, is the little green men who were once popularly believed to inhabit the planet."

Good to know.

And one honorable mention- since it's another Oscar story, I can't give it full points...

CNN: The Disney Catalogue has gone nuclear

Headline: Why ‘Pinocchio’ is devastating

And by "devastating", Holly Thomas (morning editor at Katie Couric Media, which is probably a punch line on it's own if I felt like digging) means that it is devastating that the latest remake of the cartoon did not get a "Best Picture" nomination.  " It’s languishing instead in the animated feature film category, alongside “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” “The Sea Beast” and “Turning Red”. "

Perhaps the the little wooden liar should have gotten a "Celeb-backed campaign" together.  I can almost see it now...

"Heck, no, we won't go!  Nominate Pinocchio!"